The Keepers: Song of Sorrow

Chapter Eight

"Stop pouting."
"I'm not pouting."
"You are." Addac taunted. Jesper looked over at him and glowered. It had been a few days since he'd left Maria back at her home, Jesper had wanted to prepare before heading for the Sleeping God, the Dream had started blinking in and out of existence more frequently. It was giving him a headache, Addac hadn't been faring much better with the constant disruption of reality around them, they were getting back into old habits: fighting often, snarling constantly in their own language, it wouldn't be long before they simply murdered some random village just to break tension. Jesper had kept himself in the avatar form, although he couldn't get Addac to make one for himself, it made getting into libraries and other populated areas easier. Currently they were far outside a major city surrounded by a stack of borrowed (stolen) scrolls and maps of the third world where the Sleeping God resided.
"How many people do you think died or went mad while napping these?" Addac asked.
"Plenty, most of these aren't even finished, others seem to contradict each other."
"Contradict? How so?" Addac leaned over Jesper's shoulder as the half demon pulled out a second nap and laid it out next to the first, they looked completely different save for a single mountain in the middle of each map.
"These maps are showing that same area." Jesper said.
"They don't match?"
"Exactly, I think the Sleeping God is changing the world around him, the only consistent part is the mountain, so he must be here." Jesper pointed at the mountain.
"How do we get there?" Addac asked, Jesper sighed and shook his head.
"I don't know." He spoke softly in common tongue. "We're going in blind, it's certainly different from when I was last there."
"You didn't stay long after you came into being." Addac nodded.
"The idea is to simply get to the mountain for now, there will be others, we'll probably have to fight, I'd rather not get sacrificed to the Sleeping God either to wake him up or keep him asleep."
"What will you do once you reach the Sleeping God?"
"I didn't get that far." Jesper admitted, rolling up the maps and standing. He wasn't about to waste time returning the maps back to the library, he wrapped them up and set them under the tree he'd been sitting at, someone would find them eventually or they'd rot away from the weather he didn't care which happened first. Addac disappeared behind a tree, another entrance into the tunnels that connected the worlds, Jesper was quick to follow. They'd be using different ways to the world of the Sleeping God, they had to or risk drawing attention.
"Good luck, I'll try and keep all attention on me." Addac said.
"You were always good at keeping attention." Jesper said, and they parted ways. The half demon weaved his way carefully through the living tunnels in silence. His thoughts went to Maria: was she doing well? Was she worried about him? Did she miss him? He sighed and slowed his pace, when he'd first met her in their first actual meeting he'd still been a raging beast she'd been stern but kind and taught him manners and how to speak the common tongue, he'd stayed with her nearly a year before they were attacked by one of his kind. Maria had died in the attack, in his shock and grief he'd hunted down the Time Triplets and forced them to grant him the ability to go back and fix it. They had and he'd tried over and over again to keep her safe, the ability had faded with use and now he wasn't sure if he could use it again even if he hadn't sent Maria back home.
   Jesper pulled his coat closer around himself, his tail lashed back and forth. He was close now and he could smell the dead air. He stepped out onto the bleak, barren world where the Sleeping God rested. He walked out at the base of a cliff, he could see the peak of the mountain in the distance. It was massive if he could see it over the horizon, he didn't remember it being so tall when he'd first awoken on this world. He began his trek across the dead landscape towards it withered grass crunches under his paws. He could smell others of his kind around him, he could hear their growls and shrieks in the distance. He turned his head towards the noise, Addac must have gotten here before him.
"Well, well, well, just look at you. I was wondering how long it was going to take for you to show up." Said a voice and Jesper turned around just in time to see a flash of a blunt object before he was knocked unconscious.